An Irish Independent Book of the Year.As the great John McGahern used to say, there's verse, and there's prose, and then there's poetry; William Wall is a poet in both mediums' John Banville.'An underrated veteran at the peak of his powers' Sunday Times.'It's this mood of lives irreparably spoiled that make this bitter-tasting tale so potent' Daily Mail.Grace and her mother and sis...

Joe Lyons has never had much success with relationships until he meets Suzie, a young music teacher. Living a solitary existence as a writer, he's alienated his mother with his autobiographical first novel and has little to say to his stridently religious sister, Mary. Only his father keeps in regular touch. But now, in the warmth of this new love, the happy endings finally seem to outnumber the tragedies. So when news comes that his mother is seriously ill, he returns home, but what he fi...

Fighting off the boredom of lockdown, acclaimed author Jim Winter decides to share his skills by setting up an anonymous online writing workshop – but his generosity will cost him more than he knows.Right away, the work of a talented student known only as Deirdre stands out. Her novel concerns the death of Mattie Lantry, a lonely seventeen-year-old found murdered in the now-distant summer of 1980, in the local cemetery of his quiet fishing town. The writing is brilliant, but there'...

In an Ireland far removed from the familiar images of travel brochures, a bright teenager is heading for trouble: son of a single mother who has given up, rarely at school, taking drugs, and hovering on the fringes of the city's criminal underworld.When he falls for Pat The Baker's sister his life changes irrevocably, not least because when she gets pregnant, Pat breaks his legs. But as he tries to make a new start and adjust to being a lover and father, he realises he cannot evade...

William Wall is the first international winner of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize.In this collection of interconnected stories, the beautiful and ravaging forces of sea and land collide with the forces of human nature, through isolation and family, love and loss, madness and revelation. The stories follow the lives of two sisters and the people who come and go in their lives, much like the tides. Dominated by the tragic loss of a third sister at a young age, their ...

A startling and gripping novel, Suzy, Suzy follows a teenage girl trying to understand the chaos of her family life.Suzy lives in a dysfunctional household. She can't stand her mother; her father is keeping secrets; and her brother only seems to egg on their parents' erratic and unpredictable behaviour. Alongside her friends, Suzy finds herself drawn into the downward spiral of her parents' relationship, and as a result is drawn into the ce...

When Kate Holohan's husband dies suddenly, the extent of his disastrous financial speculation is revealed – together with a mistress and a secret love-nest in the small Italian fishing port of Camogli. Unwilling to take on the ocean of debt and deceit she has inherited, Kate abandons her home and teaching job and flees to Italy in the hope of making a new life.Her new neighbour, Anna Ferrara, is a formidable and mysterious older lady who takes Kate under her wing, teaching her Ital...

Ivory Eb is a short story about interracial couples. The first part deals with a couple during the pre-Civil War era and their joys and sorrows from a tragedy. Parts Two and Three pertain to another couple and it is set from the turbulent 1960’s up to the present day. It’s tied to Part One by a twist of fate. They are dealing with their trials and tribulations, and their ultimate triumph over their adversity, won by an unshakeable love.Ivory Eb is a short, but endearingly

A horrifying masterpiece of science fictionThe Sound of His Horn is a classic novel of the uncanny. Alan Querdilion becomes a prisoner of war during World War II and then awakes, only to find himself in an alternative future in which the Nazis have won the war. Against a sylvan backdrop, the legend of the wild huntsman is revived and genetic experiments have created strange hybrids. Humans are hunted for game, haunted by the sound of the huntsman’s horn.

A startling and gripping novel, Suzy Suzy follows a teenage girl trying to understand the chaos of her family life.Suzy lives in a dysfunctional household. She can't stand her mother; her father is keeping secrets; and her brother only seems to egg on their parents' erratic and unpredictable behaviour. Alongside her friends, Suzy finds herself drawn into the downward spiral of her parents' relationship, and as a result is drawn into the centre of a mystery surrounding a murder. Forc...

One of Sarban's first published works, Ringstones helped establish him among critics and readers as a writer of unusually evocative power. Originally published in 1951, the story is set on the Northumberland moors, where Daphne Hazel appears to cross the boundaries of time, becoming involved with terrifying personalities from the mysterious past.Sarban is truly a master of his craft.

A masterful horror tale by the author of The Sound of His HornThe Doll Maker tells the tale of Clare Lydgate, a young woman studying at boarding school for her Oxford scholarship examinations. In the evenings, she escapes the school grounds by climbing over the wall of Brackenbine Hall. It is here that she encounters the charismatic and mysterious Niall Sterne, the "Doll Maker." This is a subtle, intelligent, and compelling tale of horror.